City crews were hard at work on the "road diet" project on 24th Avenue Northwest between Northwest 56th and 65th streets last week. Lanes of traffic will be reduced from four to three with a center turn lane, as well as bike lanes on both sides of the arterial. Restriping began last Wednesday and will likely last until the end of this week, according to a city transportation spokesman. Crews are working during non-peak hours, from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Motorcyclist and young sidecar passenger enjoy a hot summer Saturday cruise south on 15th Avenue Northwest through Ballard.
Last week's lead story, "More family business leaves area," prompted several comments on our Web site, emails and few calls to our office. Some of those comments came from a few new, family owned Ballard businesses.
They called or wrote to say that we had forgotten an important point to the story. While some family businesses are leaving, new ones are taking their place in some instances.
Skarbos, a family-owned furniture store that's been in the Seattle area more than 45 years, is one example. Ron Skarbo, owner, called us personally.
Don't expand state children's insurance program
By Paul Guppy
Congress is currently debating re-authorization of the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program. A straight re-authorization for a further five years would cost the treasury $25 billion, but some advocates in Congress want to expand the program's expense to $50 billion, and one proposal is as high as $70 billion.
Crowding out private coverage
Most Americans support a safety net program to help needy kids.
To some people Ron Robinson was just a regular guy that was down on his luck and deserved a helping hand. He loved puppies, children, knew how to fix cars and always had a smile on his face.
Others saw a homeless person who smelled like urine and they avoided him when walking the same Ballard streets.
Ronald Jay Robinson died recently in his sleep, while resting on a red sleeping bag. He was in a makeshift home, in a wooden shed behind a boat yard. He died sometime between August 20 and Sept.
Spurred in part by the potential conversion the Lock Vista Apartments to condominiums, Ballard residents expressed anger and frustration last week over the depleting pool of affordable housing here.
Seattle's director of housing joined City Council members Sally Clark and Tom Rasmussen at last week's Ballard District Council meeting to discuss Mayor Greg Nickels proposal to expand a tax break for developers, which aims to encourage the construction of more units affordable to moderate wage workers.
Mayor Greg Nickels made a recent on-foot inspection of the Crown Hill neighborhood, but it was not a walk through the path of least resistance.
He appeared gracious and receptive as organizers of the Crown Hill Neighborhood Association and Crown Hill Business Association, along with residents, filled his ears with three major concerns as they ushered him through a problem obstacle course.
The walk started in front of Edward Jones, on 15th Avenue Northwest near Northwest 85th Street.
Mayor Greg Nickels wants to keep commercial and retail development off industrial land.
Nickels has announced an initiative to strengthen zoning protection for industry and manufacturing in Seattle. The purpose, Nickels said during a press conference, is to protect existing industrial jobs and encourage new ones.
Over 120,000 jobs in Seattle are in industry and manufacturing, according to the Employment Security Department.
Throughout this month, community initiated projects that would add sidewalks and make other improvements to many Ballard streets are vying for a piece of the city's neighborhood street fund from the "Bridging the Gap" levy.
The projects are being presented at a series of community open houses, where members of the public have the opportunity to cast their vote on which projects should be prioritized by the city.
The project rankings will be considered along with a series of criteria by a Seattle Department of Transportation team and narrowed down to the top 50 projects, s
Mayor Greg Nickels plans to increase spending for neighborhood transportation projects to enhance public safety, and improve neighborhood streetscapes.
Following a city outreach effort, Nickels responded by adding $2 million to the city's Neighborhood Street Fund (NSF) in his proposed 2008 budget. This addition means the fund will grow to $10.1 million over the next three years.
"We listened carefully to neighborhoods, and expanding this program was clearly a top priority," Nickels said.
